Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Friday inaugurated a hospital specialising in women’s health in the central city of Beira.
The hospital, in the Macuti neighbourhood, was built during the colonial epoch but has now, after years of paralysis, benefitted from rehabilitation and expansion, financed by the Mozambican state budget to the tune of 145 million meticais (about 2.1 million US dollars). It has now been renamed the “24th July Women’s Hospital”.
This hospital will offer maternity and gynaecological services and will screen women for breast and cervical cancer. In addition to the 60-bed maternity ward, the hospital is equipped with an operating theatre, laboratories, and radiology services equipped with modern technology.
Initially, 25 health professionals will work at the hospital, including doctors specializing in gynaecology and obstetrics.
At the inauguration ceremony, Health Minister Armindo Tiago said that one goal of his ministry is to ensure that the city has health units that can alleviate the current pressure on Beira Central Hospital. To this end, a new Beira General Hospital is also under construction.
Also on Friday, Nyusi inaugurated the Centre for the Treatment of Epidemics, which will initially serve as an isolation ward for serious cases of the Covid-19 respiratory disease. The new centre, with a 60-bed capacity, complements the existing 30-bed isolation ward in the neighbourhood of Inhamissua.
The advantage of the new Centre, according to Tiago, is that it is not on hospital premises, and thus allows effective isolation, avoiding cases of contamination which might occur if the centre were inside a hospital.
The Centre has isolation areas for both men and women and an intensive care unit. Once the Covid-19 crisis has passed, the centre will operate as a normal health unit.
Nyusi also visited the laboratory of the Beira Industrial and Commercial Institute, which has been restructured with the support of the German Development Bank. In line with the current reform of Mozambican professional education, the Institute is offering skills-based training.